Interview is a biographical profile of theoretical astrophysicist David Layzer, with emphasis on his career at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Topics discussed include his family life, interest in music, childhood interests, reading preferences. Affinity for mathematics. Contact with Jason Nassau at the Warner and Swasey Observatory. Devoured literatures, recollections of English teacher. Decision to enroll at Harvard and contact with Bart Bok. Mathematics courses and contacts with Garrett Birkhoff. Contrasting mathematics and astronomy at Harvard.

In this interview George Field discusses topics such as: his time at the University of California, Berkeley; Charles Townes; Lick Observatory; working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); radio astronomy work with Ed Purcell; detecting neutral hydrogen gas at big red shifts; Fred Whipple; moving to the Harvard College Observatory; planning for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Charles Lundquist; Riccardo Giacconi; Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory; Northeast Radio Observatory Corporation (NEROC); orbiting solar observatories (OSOs); Dave Challino

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